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CONTENTS
Volume 56, Number 4, November25 2015
 


Abstract
The present work investigates the behavior of the embankment models resting on soft soil reinforced with ordinary and stone columns encased with geogrid. Model tests were performed with different spacing distances between stone columns and two lengths to diameter ratios (L/d) of the stone columns, in addition to different embankment heights. A total number of 42 model tests were carried out on a soil with undrianed shear strength ≈10 kPa. The models consist of stone columns embankment at s/d equal to 2.5, 3 and 4 with L/d ratio equal 5 and 8. Three embankment heights; 200 mm, 250 mm and 300 mm were tested for both tests of ordinary (OSC) and geogrid encased stone columns (ESC). Three earth pressure cells were used to measure directly the vertical effective stress on column at the top of the middle stone column under the center line of embankment and on the edge stone column for all models while the third cell was placed at the base of embankment between two columns to measure the vertical effective stress in soft soil directly. The performance of stone columns embankments relies upon the ability of the granular embankment material to arch over the „gaps‟ between the stone columns spacing. The results showed that the ratio of the embankment height to the clear spacing between columns (h/s-d) is a key parameter. It is found that (h/s-d)<1.2 and 1.4 for OSC and ESC, respectively; (h is the embankment height, s is the spacing between columns and d is the diameter of stone columns), no effect of arching is pronounced, the settlement at the surface of the embankment is very large, and the stress acting on the subsoil is virtually unmodified from the nominal overburden stress. When (h/s-d)

Key Words
embankment; soft clay; stone column; arching

Address
Mohammed Y. Fattah: Building and Construction Engineering Department, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq
Bushra S. Zabar: Civil Engineering Department, University of Baghdad, Iraq
Hanan A. Hassan: Highway and Transportation Engineering Department, University of Al-Mustansiriya, Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract
A series of experimental results on thin mild steel plates clamped at the boundary subjected to gas detonation shock loading are presented. Detonation occurred by mixing Acetylene (C2H2)-Oxygen (O2) in various volume ratio and different initial pressure. The applied impulse is varied to give deformation in the range from 6 mm to 35 mm. Analytical modeling using energy method was also performed. Dependent material properties, as well as strain rate sensitivity, are included in the theoretical modeling. Prediction values for midpoint deflections are compared with experimental data. The analytical predictions have good agreement with experimental values. Moreover, it has been shown that the obtained model has much less error compared with those previously proposed in the literature.

Key Words
circular plate; large deformation; gas detonation forming; shock loading; theoretical modeling

Address
Hashem Babaei, Tohid Mirzababaie Mostofi and Seyed Hamidreza Sadraei: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Guilan, 3756-41635 Rasht, Iran

Abstract
A first-order moment method (FORM) reliability analysis is commonly used for structural stability analysis. It requires the values and partial derivatives of the performance to function with respect to the random variables for the design. These calculations can be cumbersome when the performance functions are implicit. A Gaussian process (GP)-based response surface is adopted in this study to approximate the limit state function. By using a trained GP model, a large number of values and partial derivatives of the performance functions can be obtained for conventional reliability analysis with a FORM, thereby reducing the number of stability analysis calculations. This dynamic renewed knowledge source can provide great assistance in improving the predictive capacity of GP during the iterative process, particularly from the view of machine learning. An iterative algorithm is therefore proposed to improve the precision of GP approximation around the design point by constantly adding new design points to the initial training set. Examples are provided to illustrate the GP-based response surface for both structural and non-structural reliability analyses. The results show that the proposed approach is applicable to structural reliability analyses that involve implicit performance functions and structural response evaluations that entail time consuming finite element analyses.

Key Words
first-order moment method; structural reliability; response surface method; Gaussian process

Address
Guoshao Su, Jianqing Jiang, Bo Yu and Yilong Xiao: School of Civil and Architecture Engineering, Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety of Ministry of Education, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Engineering Safety, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China

Abstract
A comprehensive methodology is proposed for design of metallic dampers in seismic retrofit of earthquake-damaged frame structures. It is assumed that the metallic dampers remain elastic and only provide stiffness during frequent earthquake (i.e., earthquake with a 63% probability of exceedance in 50-year service period), while in precautionary earthquake (i.e., earthquake with a 10% probability of exceedance in 50-year service period), the metallic dampers yield before the main frame and dissipate most of the seismic energy to either prevent or minimize structural damages. Therefore by converting multi-story frame to an equivalent single-degree-of-freedom system, the added stiffness provided by metallic dampers is designed to control elastic story drifts within code-based demand under frequent earthquake, and the added damping with the combination of added stiffness influences is obtained to control structural stress within performance-based target under precautionary earthquake. With the equivalent added damping ratio, the expected damping forces provided by metallic dampers can be calculated to carry out the configuration and design of metallic dampers along with supporting braces. Based on a detailed example for retrofit of an earthquake-damaged reinforced concrete frame by using metallic dampers, the proposed design procedure is demonstrated to be simple and practical, which can not only meet current China

Key Words
metallic damper; seismic retrofit; earthquake-damaged frame; energy; equivalent damping ratio

Address
Chao Zhang: Postdoctoral Research Station of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
Chao Zhang, Yun Zhou, De H. Lu and Cong X. Wu: College of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
Da G. Weng: State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Abstract
The mixed-mode stress intensity factors of 2-D angled cracks are evaluated by Petrov-Galerkin natural element (PG-NE) method in which Voronoi polygon-based Laplace interpolation functions and CSFE basis functions are used for the trial and test functions respectively. The interaction integral is implemented in a frame of PG-NE method in which the weighting function defined over a crack-tip integral domain is interpolated by Laplace interpolation functions. Two Cartesian coordinate systems are employed and the displacement, strains and stresses which are solved in the grid-oriented coordinate system are transformed to the other coordinate system aligned to the angled crack. The present method is validated through the numerical experiments with the angled edge and center cracks, and the numerical accuracy is examined with respect to the grid density, crack length and angle. Also, the stress intensity factors obtained by the present method are compared with other numerical methods and the exact solution. It is observed from the numerical results that the present method successfully and accurately evaluates the mixed-mode stress intensity factors of 2-D angled cracks for various crack lengths and crack angles.

Key Words
2-D angled crack; mixed-mode stress intensity factor (SIF); interaction integral; Petrov-Galerkin natural element (PG-NE) method; crack length and angle

Address
Jin-Rae Cho: Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Hongik University, Sejong 339-701, Korea

Abstract
A formulation of the boundary element method (BEM) based on Kirchhoff\'s hypothesis to analyse stiffened plates composed by beams and slabs with different materials is proposed. The stiffened plate is modelled by a zoned plate, where different values of thickness, Poisson ration and Young\'s modulus can be defined for each sub-region. The proposed integral representations can be used to analyze the coupled stretching-bending problem, where the membrane effects are taken into account, or to analyze the bending and stretching problems separately. To solve the domain integrals of the integral representation of in-plane displacements, the beams and slabs domains are discretized into cells where the displacements have to be approximated. As the beams cells nodes are adopted coincident to the elements nodes, new independent values arise only in the slabs domain. Some numerical examples are presented and compared to a wellknown finite element code to show the accuracy of the proposed model.

Key Words
plate bending; boundary elements; stiffened plates; membrane effects; stretching problem

Address
Gabriela R. Fernandes and Joao R. Neto: Civil Engineering Department, Federal University of Goias (UFG), CAC, Av. Dr. Lamartine Pinto de Avelar, 1120, Setor Universitario, CEP 75700-000 Catalao, GO, Brazil

Abstract
Modern super-tall buildings are more sensitive to strong winds. The evaluation of wind loads for the design of these buildings is of primary importance. A direct monitoring of wind forces acting on super-tall structures is quite difficult to be realized. Indirect measurements interpreted by inverse techniques are therefore favourable since dynamic response measurements are easier to be carried out. To this end, a Kalman filtering based inverse approach is developed in this study so as to estimate the wind loads on super-tall buildings based on limited structural responses. The optimum solution of Kalman filter gain by solving the Riccati equation is used to update the identification accuracy of external loads. The feasibility of the developed estimation method is investigated through the wind tunnel test of a typical super-tall building by using a Synchronous Multi-Pressure Scanning System. The effects of crucial factors such as the type of wind-induced response, the covariance matrix of noise, errors of structural modal parameters and levels of noise involved in the measurements on the wind load estimations are examined through detailed parametric study. The effects of the number of vibration modes on the identification quality are studied and discussed in detail. The made observations indicate that the proposed inverse approach is an effective tool for predicting the wind loads on super-tall buildings.

Key Words
inverse technique; wind load; super-tall building; continuous-time Kalman filter; wind-induced response; wind tunnel test

Address
Lun-hai Zhi and Ming-xin Fang: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Bo Chen: Key Laboratory of Roadway Bridge and Structural Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

Abstract
The present paper attempts to investigate the propagation of plane waves in generalized piezo-thermoelastic medium under the effect of rotation. The normal mode analysis is used to obtain the expressions for the displacement components, the temperature, the stress and the strain components. Comparisons are made with the results predicted by different theories (Coupled theory, Lord-Schulman, Green-Lindsay) in the absence and presence of rotation.

Key Words
rotation; piezo-thermoelasticity; relaxation time; normal mode analysis; generalized thermoelasticity

Address
Mohamed I.A. Othman and Ethar A. A. Ahmed: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, P.O. Box 44519, Zagazig, Egypt
Mohamed I.A. Othman: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Taif University 888, Taif, Saudi Arabia

Abstract
The suspended dome system is a new structural form that has become popular in the construction of long-span roof structures. Suspended dome is a kind of new pre-stressed space grid structure that has complex mechanical characteristics. In this paper, an optimum topology design algorithm is performed using the enhanced colliding bodies optimization (ECBO) method. The length of the strut, the cable initial strain, the cross-sectional area of the cables and the cross-sectional size of steel elements are adopted as design variables and the minimum volume of each dome is taken as the objective function. The topology optimization on lamella dome is performed by considering the type of the joint connections to determine the optimum number of rings, the optimum number of joints in each ring, the optimum height of crown and tubular sections of these domes. A simple procedure is provided to determine the configuration of the dome. This procedure includes calculating the joint coordinates and steel elements and cables constructions. The design constraints are implemented according to the provision of LRFD-AISC (Load and Resistance Factor Design-American Institute of Steel Constitution). This paper explores the efficiency of lamella dome with pin-joint and rigid-joint connections and compares them to investigate the performance of these domes under wind (according to the ASCE 7-05), dead and snow loading conditions. Then, a suspended dome with pin-joint single-layer reticulated shell and a suspended dome with rigid-joint single-layer reticulated shell are discussed. Optimization is performed via ECBO algorithm to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the ECBO in creating optimal design for suspended domes.

Key Words
topology optimization; cable tension optimization; enhanced colliding bodies optimization; lamella dome; suspended dome; pin-joint dome; pre-stressed structure; double layer dome

Address
A. Kaveh: Centre of Excellence for Fundamental Studies in Structural Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran, P.O. Box 16846-13114, Iran
M. Rezaei: Road, Building and Housing Research Center, Tehran, P.O. Box 1145-1696, Iran

Abstract
Distressed structures require necessary remedial measures in order to restore their original structural properties like strength and stiffness. Validating the effectiveness of the proposed qualitative remedial measure experimentally is of utmost importance as there is no well-established analytical method to verify the effectiveness of the same quantitatively. Prototype testing which would have been the best option for this purpose would not only prove costly but also be associated with numerous practical difficulties; hence model testing is resorted as the only option for the purpose. This paper presents one such typical experimental study on the structural behavior of a distressed bridge, mainly observed in the form of prominent tilt in the bearing plate in transverse and longitudinal direction on downstream side. The main focus of the proposed experimental investigation is to assess the structural behavior particularly the load carrying capacity. The extent of deformation of some models with specific structural arrangements and some models with specific need based remedial measures were also studied. This study also assessed the contribution of each remedial measure towards restoration individually and collectively.

Key Words
truss girder bridge; pipe rack; severe distress; bearing plate; remedial measures

Address
M.A. Dar, J. Raju: Department of Civil Engineering, MSRIT, Bangalore, India
N. Subramanian: Consulting Engineer, Maryland, USA
A.R. Dar: Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Srinagar, J&K, India


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